Ontario’s education minister is facing backlash from Catholic and pro-life groups after she appeared to equate anti-abortion views with “misogyny,” sparking questions of whether the provincial government seeks to restrict these teachings in publicly funded Catholic schools.

Catholics and religious groups have long worried an anti-bullying bill, now passed into law, would infringe on their constitutionally held right to teach church doctrine because it requires Catholic schools to allow students to form Gay Straight Alliance clubs.

Now, Laurel Broten’s comments at a press conference last week in her other capacity as Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues have stoked concerns the government wants to dictate what Catholics can and cannot teach.

“Bill 13 is about tackling misogyny,” she said. “Taking away a woman’s right to choose could arguably be one of the most misogynistic actions that one could take.”

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To Catholics, the statement was an affront to their constitutionally held right to teach the doctrine of their church in schools — a doctrine that teaches life begins at conception and should be protected.

On Monday, Campaign Life Coalition called for her immediate resignation, and denounced the comments as a “frontal assault on religious liberty.” Cardinal Thomas Collins of the Archdiocese of Toronto sent a letter Friday to Ms. Broten expressing “deep concerns” about her statements.

“The right to life, from conception to natural death, is a core teaching of Catholicism,” Joanne McGarry, executive director of the Catholic Civil Rights League said in a statement Friday. “Ms. Broten reportedly said she doesn’t think there is a conflict between ‘choosing Catholic education for your children and supporting a woman’s right to choose’ so she is clearly ill-informed about the fundamentals of Catholicism.”

Added the group’s lawyer and president, Phil Horgan: “All you can really read into her position is [that she believes] the Catholic teaching is misogynist. That’s a point worthy of a serious debate,” he said. “Is it also misogynist for, for example, Catholics and other pro-life individuals to suggest that selective sex abortion is a fundamentally anti-woman engagement? Where does this misogyny have an end?”

But the minister’s office said Monday her words have been grossly misunderstood and insists it’s possible to have a government that promotes a pro-choice position and have a thriving Catholic school system.

The minister’s spokesperson, Paris Meilleur, said her boss was specifically referring to what she saw as the Progressive Conservatives’ effort to reopen the abortion debate in the province, not trying to dictate what’s taught in schools.

In a statement provided to the Post Monday, Ms. Broten said “the Government of Ontario is committed to support for Catholic education and denominational rights” and that “the discussions of the last week were not about what is taught or is not taught in our Catholic schools.” The curriculum, she said, remains unchanged.

Regardless of where she was directing the comment, Ms. Broten’s lack of clarity and introduction of Bill 13 into a discussion on abortion sent the wrong message to Catholic parents already worried that the anti-bullying bill is the beginning of a bigger move to erase church’s values and morals from Catholic schools, said Teresa Pierre, the president of Catholic parents’ group Parents As First Educators.

“Parents who were concerned [Bill 13] would be used to silence Catholic teaching on homosexuality have now seen that in her mind this bill concerns the life issues too.”

Eugene Meehan, an Ottawa constitutional rights lawyer specializing in the Supreme Court, says Ms. Broten’s statement may have just been political, but it nonetheless turned the spotlight on another concern about Bill 13: That it is very vulnerable to a constitutional challenge because it shifts responsibility for the Catholic school system to the minister’s office, he said — a breach of the Constitution Act of 1867 which protects the rights of denominational schools to teach their religious belief.

The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association was more perplexed by her statements than offended, since there is no reference to abortion or misogyny in Bill 13. “Catholic parents who send children to our school expect that their children will be educated according to the tenets of the Catholic faith,” said president Marino Gazzola. “Our curriculum isn’t going to change, but this is certainly posing questions.”

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